Blog #6: Digital Storytelling

Write brief reviews about the two tools you used to create short lessons with this week (Digital Storytelling through Storybooks, Cartoons & Comics). 


#1. Domo Animate :  http://domo.goanimate.com/studio

I think the website is originally made by Japanese or at least pay some royalty to the Japanese animation company because characters of this website are made in Japan.
By the way, you can use this site to create an animated story. You can make the characters to do some actions like run, slide and walk, and you can also change their facial expressions, too. Moreover, you can insert the background music in it, and put the line in the speech bubble.
Once you finish making one, you can share it with other classmates through online.



#2. Pixton : http://www.pixton.com/my-home


Pixton is a tool that you can make a cartoon in the easiest way. Anyone can make a funny cartoon without drawing or painting. All  you need is just an imagination. You can select a background image, item, character(inclding motions and facial expressions) and so on to make your own story.




How could these tools be used by teachers AND students? How could they be incorporated into a class?


There are various ways to incorporate this animation into the class.
First, Teachers can make a story by using this tool and show it to the class, then students understand the story and paraphrase it into their own words. Animations and cartoons are cute and fun, so it can raise students interests to the high level. Therefore they can concentrate on it and start thinking what the most appropriate words for retelling the story with their own words. During the process of picking the right words to make the story, the groupwork will be beneficial for them.
Second, the teacher can give students only the starting sentence, like a chain story, then students can make their own animated story using their imagination. The makig process is totally up to each student, so it will be very interesting to see what other students made and compare them with their own work. Students can also learn the vocabs while they make the story because they have to know the right words for the story they're going to make and pick up the picture describes it to paste.

These toosl will be very powerful and good for raising interests among students because the making process itself is very fun. Don't hesitate to apply these tools to your own class activity :)